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Israel had been preventing vast multitudes of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of raping the truce, but reached an agreement for the release of more hostages.
Hundreds of Palestinians who return home in northern Gaza after advance in hostage conversations. (AFP)
The Palestinians began to return to the north of the Gaza Strip hit by the war on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached an agreement for the launch of six other hostages.
The advance retains a fragile fire in the Israel-Ahamas War, which has devastated the Gaza Strip and displaced almost all its residents, racing the way for more exchanges of host prisoners under an agreement destined to end the conflict of more than 15 months.
Israel had been preventing vast crowds of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of raping the truce by not releasing civil hostages.
The multitudes of Palestinians began to go north on Monday morning, said an official in the Ministry of Interior led by Hamas.
“The passage of the displaced Palestinians has begun,” said the official.
The Office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said previously that he had reached an agreement for the release of three hostages on Thursday and three others on Saturday. Hamas confirmed the agreement in his own statement on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian leaders criticized a plan floated by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to “clean” Gaza, promising to resist any effort to force the residents of the territory beaten by the war.
Trump said Gaza had become a “demolition site”, adding that he had spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordan about the move of Palestinians.
“I would like Egypt to take people. And I would like Jordan to take people, “Trump told reporters.
The Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, based in Western West Bank occupied by Israel, “said a strong rejection and condemnation of any project” destined to displace the Palestinians of Gaza, said his office.
Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political office, told AFP that the Palestinians “would frustrate such projects,” as they have done to similar plans “for displacement and alternative homelands throughout the decades.”
The Islamic Jihad, which has fought with Hamas in Gaza, described Trump’s idea as “deplorable.”
For the Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba”, or the catastrophe: the massive displacement of the Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948.
“We tell Trump and the whole world: we will not abandon Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said Rashad al-Naji, resident of Gaza, Rashad al-Naji.
Egypt, Jordan rejected the relocation of Palestinians
Trump raised the idea to journalists on Saturday aboard Air Force One: “You are talking about a million and a half people, and we simply clean all that.”
Moving the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza could be done “temporarily or could be in the long term,” he said.
The Minister of Finance of the extreme right of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the truce agreement and has expressed his support to restore Israeli settlements in Gaza, called Trump’s suggestion of “a great idea.”
The Arab League rejected the idea, warning against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people of their land.”
“Forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleaning,” said the league in a statement.
Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said: “Our rejection of the displacement of the Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for the Jordanians and Palestine is for the Palestinians. “
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt said that it rejected any violation of the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinians.
Israel had said that he would avoid the passage of the Palestinians until the liberation of Arbel Yehud, a civil hostage. She is among those scheduled to return on Thursday, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Hamas said the north -return blockade also amounted to a rape of truce, adding that he had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for the liberation of Yehud.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Monday that residents could return on foot from 07:00 am (0500 GMT) and by car at 9:00 am
Gaza’s humanitarian situation is still serious
During the first phase of Gaza’s truce, 33 hostages are supposed to be released in staggered releases for six weeks in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The most recent exchange saw four Israeli hostages, all soldiers and 200 prisoners, almost all Palestinians, released on Saturday, the second exchange of this type during the fragile truce that enters its second week.
Dani Miran, whose hostage OMRI is not scheduled for his release during the first phase, demonstrated outside the Netanyahu office in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“We want the agreement to continue and return our children as quickly as possible, and all at once,” he said.
The truce has brought a wave of food, fuel, medications and other help to gaza full of rubble, but the UN says that “the humanitarian situation remains serious.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that ignited the war, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 that the military say they are dead.
Hamas’ attack resulted in the death of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP account based on official Israeli figures.
The retaliation offensive of Israel has killed at least 47,306 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health of the Territory of Hamas, which the United Nations considers reliable.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a FEED – AFP union news agency)